1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of generating specific programming systems to perform administrative data processing operations in specially designated businesses by means of at least one computer. Further, the invention also relates to tools to facilitate the above described program system generating works.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, various techniques of computer-program design have been proposed and broadly known as, for example, module design technique, hierarchical programming technique, abstract-data using technique, Jackson technique, and so on. Although these conventional program design techniques have produced excellent theoretical results in laboratories, they have not been practically applied in an actual working scene where specific programs for specially designated businesses are produced. In other words, these techniques have not been proven for direct use by programmers on the scene. Thus, in an actual software development scene, some programmers whose skill level and technical knowledge vary widely have been engaged in program design depending on their own skill level and experience.
On most conventional program development scenes, an individual programmer designs a new program in isolation according to his own technical level without any programming schemes. Therefore, such isolated programming work is not only performed at a low efficiency, but may also cause remarkable variation in quality of the produced programs. This variation will cause many serious problems in system management because many corrections and anxious maintenance will be required.
For example, in development and design work of specific programs for specially designated businesses which perform administrative data processing in sales management, production management, stock management, purchase management, financial management, personnel management, and so on, the basically designed program should be corrected to fit the specially designated business. Such correction is achieved by considering and investigating the required specification in response to the designated business. Practically, most programmers proceed into the detailed design of the program when there are still many indeterminate factors needing to be resolved with respect to the requested business data processing logic. The situation may cause the programmers confusion when handling at the same time the problems that deal not only with the program control logic but also with the business data processing logic. Even when a programmer is free from such confusion, he is often obliged to return to the initial stage during the program design work stages, for example, due to partial change in the requested specification. On account of this situation, the ongoing program design work cannot be flexibly adapted to any unexpected changes in the requested specification. Conventionally, the detailed logic program already produced must be often corrected in response to the changes. These repeated correction works will reduce the efficiency in programming work. In addition to the problems in programming work, the program created through the conventional programming system having the above disclosed demerits may also cause many serious problems in maintenance and correction works by users who intend to apply the program to perform administrative data processing.